Brick native does the hustle for Sandy fundraiser

Nov. 25, 2012

Steve Ramsthaler of San Deigo, formerly of Brick, talks about items up for auction during Saturday's fundraiser, which he organized. 'Seeing all this tragedy, I've never seen people shine more,' he said. / DOUG HOOD/staff photographer

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POINT PLEASANT — Steve Ramsthaler, a 25-year-old event coordinator in San Diego, had his arms deep in soggy Sheetrock at a friend’s storm-battered home when he concluded that his New Jersey vacation would not become a month-long cleanup.

He exchanged the dirty work of tearing down walls and tossing waterlogged furniture to the curb for the full-throttle pace he’s accustomed to, in this case assembling a fundraiser for his devastated home state.

“I figured setting up events, rather than doing construction, would be much better,” said Ramsthaler, originally from Brick. “Plus, ripping out homes is super sad.”

This would not be a slapdash suds party in a dimly lighted watering hole. For Ramsthaler, visiting for a month to attend a cousin’s wedding, this post-Sandy, post-Thanksgiving booster would have all the trimmings: Five local bands, DJs, a week-long trip to Cancun for the winning, professional spray-painting displays and more than $2,000 in merchandise to be auctioned.

Ramsthaler spent the past two weeks “from when I woke up until dinner, pretty much,” hustling to find a host and soliciting donations from local businesses who had something left to give. By phone, email and going door-to-door, Ramsthaler corralled support while most others still were sorting through wreckage.

For a marathon nine hours Saturday, Ramsthaler hosted old friends and bar regulars at The Shore House on Route 88, where, by circumstance, nobody was a stranger.

'Got to do something'

“This isn’t another country this happened to,” said Chris Gullace, whose family owns The Shore House. “Everybody I know is affected by this, so we’ve got to do something.”

It was kind of an odd feeling, though, raising money for causes that you qualify for.

Caitlin Rorke, 24, whose childhood home in Brick was heavily damaged in the Oct. 29 storm, said she felt good contributing to the event, but also felt embraced by the support of others who showed up, many of whom were childhood friends.

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“I guess it was more difficult for me because this is where I grew up,” Rorke, who now lives in Hoboken, said. “When I went into my neighborhood, it was just heart-breaking to see everybody’s stuff on their front lawns.”

Benefits and fundraisers in the name of Sandy relief are likely to become standard in the weeks and months ahead. For one, it is a doctrine of the Jersey Shore to always be raising money for somebody somewhere. Also, Gov. Chris Christie announced Friday that his administration calculated Sandy’s damage at $29.4 billion and climbing.

For Ramsthaler, who landed here a day after the storm hit and will be returning to San Diego next week, the New Jersey he knows was forever changed on this trip — not necessarily because his boardwalk haunt, Jenkinson’s, is a bruised icon or that so many friends’ homes have suffered such vast damage. Rather, Ramsthaler has seen a sort of mass humbling among the harried, sometime high-strung, of the Jersey Shore.

“Seeing all this tragedy, I’ve never seen people shine more. There’s no animosity; everybody’s banding together, everybody’s playing their part,” he said. “Through all the sad that happened, there’s a lot of good that’s coming out of it.”